Speaker 1: Coming to you from Iconic Studio a here at proven
Speaker 1: Winners Color Choic Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified
Speaker 1: Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer
Speaker 1: and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well Stacy, today, let's talk about
Speaker 1: rhythm and repetition. They're important landscape design principles that provide
Speaker 1: cohesion in a landscape, in other words, kind of a
Speaker 1: sense of belonging in a landscape, and they can create
Speaker 1: a mood in a landscape. Rhythm is kind of the
Speaker 1: visual movement or flow that guide your eye through a landscape.
Speaker 1: And Stacy, I've learned through the years that people in
Speaker 1: general like patterns and similarities. You feel comfortable with them.
Speaker 2: People love patterns and similarities in things like clothes and
Speaker 2: home decor. But it always amazes me that when it
Speaker 2: comes to DIY, landscaping and gardening, it's a concept that
Speaker 2: most people just completely miss out on interpreting. And it's
Speaker 2: honestly one of the simplest, easiest, most sure fire design
Speaker 2: concepts that you can implement in your garden. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you this, and I speak from experience, using concepts
Speaker 2: of rhythm and repetition of like the same plant repeated
Speaker 2: throughout the garden is easy, it saves you money, and
Speaker 2: it covers a multitude of other design sins. By establishing
Speaker 2: that structure through repetition and rhythm, you can get away
Speaker 2: with so much more beyond that, it makes a huge,
Speaker 2: huge difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, you're basically creating a hierarchy in the landscape,
Speaker 1: kind of a sequence of spaces, a theme like we
Speaker 1: talked about a few weeks ago with my landscape near
Speaker 1: the beach using grasses, various grasses, a re pedd element,
Speaker 1: so to speak. To do that, and rhythm and repetition
Speaker 1: go hand in hand. Rhythm is the repetition of elements
Speaker 1: to create a sense of movement, flow and unity. Stacey,
Speaker 1: I've seen that very often. It's poignant in Japanese gardens.
Speaker 1: That's where I really.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, definitely example.
Speaker 1: So similar elements multiple times in a landscape, unity, harmony
Speaker 1: and order, and yeah, a lot of times you know
Speaker 1: we talk about harmony. There's a great correlation between music,
Speaker 1: creating music, playing music, and the landscape as far as
Speaker 1: repetition is concerned and dynamics. Now, to celebrate this, I
Speaker 1: wrote you a little little a rick about rhyme and repetition.
Speaker 1: Of course a limerick better rhyme. So I got that
Speaker 1: part covered. But here you go. Repetition it ain't so hard.
Speaker 1: Repetition is in my yard one plant, but I have many.
Speaker 1: I've spent a pretty penny. Just put it on my
Speaker 1: credit card. Repetition it ain't so hard. Repetition is in
Speaker 1: my yard. One plant, but I have many. I've spent
Speaker 1: a pretty penny. Just put it on my credit card.
Speaker 3: See what I did, And it goes on like that.
Speaker 1: I like it repetition. But you know, it can be
Speaker 1: more than plants. It can be stone, it can be
Speaker 1: various things within the landscape, and I've seen that more
Speaker 1: and more with paths and patio stones and patios also,
Speaker 1: whereas opposed to just using one type of stone, using
Speaker 1: various patterns or colors within a patio or a path
Speaker 1: and creating a rhythm some sort of repetition really can
Speaker 1: have a huge impact.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned that because I'm actually working on
Speaker 2: a very similar situation in my own yard. So we
Speaker 2: put in a patio, and the stones or the paver
Speaker 2: units that we use there had come from my neighbor
Speaker 2: the person who had lived there previously had for some
Speaker 2: reason with them all around the outside of the house
Speaker 2: in a line. They graded it properly. They no longer
Speaker 2: needed them. They were not doing the job that the
Speaker 2: original owner had intended to do. So they gave us
Speaker 2: hundreds of these patio payers. No, I didn't particularly care
Speaker 2: for them, but they were free. Couldn't beat the price,
Speaker 2: and much like you, I'm not going to turn down
Speaker 2: a bargain. It was right next door, so it was
Speaker 2: easy to move, and so it's not my first choice, but.
Speaker 3: You know, it works.
Speaker 2: And now we're going to add another patio and I'm thinking, okay, well,
Speaker 2: if I'm shelling out for this, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: buy the same reddish pink color that I don't really
Speaker 2: care for, but I can buy it in a different
Speaker 2: I can buy the same unit in a different color,
Speaker 2: and then I can still have that kind of theme
Speaker 2: and variation is how it's often would be considered in
Speaker 2: like classical music, you know, the theme of course for
Speaker 2: these paving areas is this you know, eight by thirteen
Speaker 2: or eight by fourteen unit, but then interpreted in different colors.
Speaker 2: And it's just a simple way to keep things unified,
Speaker 2: and again it covers up for all of the craziness
Speaker 2: that's going to happen when I surround it with you know,
Speaker 2: a double border of baptisia and some homorific high discuss
Speaker 2: it's true.
Speaker 1: And you know the placement of those pavements too, there
Speaker 1: can be a form of syncopation to the way you
Speaker 1: set those pavers. In other words, if you pick certain colors,
Speaker 1: the distance between those colors can either quicken or slow
Speaker 1: one's pace. All of those are important elements within a landscape.
Speaker 1: And a great composer, of course, understands that many different
Speaker 1: instruments and people together can create a masterpiece. There's all
Speaker 1: sorts of different instruments that are used, for example, in
Speaker 1: a symphony. And if you think of Beethoven, Beethoven's fifth,
Speaker 1: you know, do duh, well, it's three four time, okay.
Speaker 1: And so if you have in your landscape, you could
Speaker 1: look at it as boxwood boxwood boxwood hydrangea boxwood boxwood
Speaker 1: boxwood high does that make sense?
Speaker 3: That makes sense?
Speaker 2: And you could also look at it as round box wood,
Speaker 2: round box wood, round box would conical box. And you know,
Speaker 2: this concept of designing by musical terms is not unfamiliar
Speaker 2: to many very talented garden designers. There is a designer
Speaker 2: named Julie Moore Messervey who famously designed a garden in
Speaker 2: Toronto called the Music Garden, which is based on a
Speaker 2: Box symphony. And so she or not symphony. I forget
Speaker 2: exactly what piece of music it is, but it's based
Speaker 2: on a piece by Box and it's you know, the
Speaker 2: way she laid out the paths and the beds and everything.
Speaker 2: Interprets this same musical concept in a physical way in
Speaker 2: the garden. So if you're into music, you might want
Speaker 2: to look up her work and kind of see through
Speaker 2: her lens how she interprets it.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I love that. Yeah, so it directly ties
Speaker 1: into you know, Dobie Gray got it right. Remember Adobie
Speaker 1: Gray in this song drift Away. I don't thanks for
Speaker 1: the joy that you've given me. I want you to
Speaker 1: know I believe your song. Oh yeah yeah, rhythm and
Speaker 1: rhyme and harmony. You helped me along. You're making me strong.
Speaker 2: She's one of those guys that like his song is
Speaker 2: more famous than his name.
Speaker 1: That's true. But you know I mentioned syncopations. I love
Speaker 1: syncopation in music, and the way I visualize it as
Speaker 1: if your eye is panning across a landscape and you
Speaker 1: have let's say some lower growing spyrias or whatever, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden there's a pointed evergreen.
Speaker 3: That just pops up.
Speaker 1: You know, that's syncopation in the landscape, and boy does
Speaker 1: that add a lot of interest. And then of course
Speaker 1: within music you would have a cadenza, and a cadenza
Speaker 1: is interpreted as an ornamental passage. It's often near the
Speaker 1: end of a movement and sometimes improvised, but it's generally
Speaker 1: some kind of peace or plant or or something within
Speaker 1: the landscape that just gives all kinds of flourish where
Speaker 1: the eye. Why, you know, it's a focal point, whether
Speaker 1: it's a fountain or it's a blue atlas cedar or
Speaker 1: whatever it may be that that just stands out in
Speaker 1: the landscape. And so a focal point, Boy, that would
Speaker 1: tie into the whole analogy with music too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, that's like kind of what I
Speaker 2: was saying earlier about the boxwood boxwood conical boxwood is
Speaker 2: you know, by doing a little research, which is a
Speaker 2: great thing to do as we're coming into the colder months,
Speaker 2: you can find plants that you can have different shapes
Speaker 2: like that, you know, especially conifers and evergreens, that you'll
Speaker 2: find those shapes and then that there's just enough cohesion
Speaker 2: with the foliage and the color and all of that
Speaker 2: to interpret that, you know, throughout the garden using those
Speaker 2: various different shapes, and it's very similar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these Italian words that describe music, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I pronounced them right, like piece of zicado, picata chicado. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so that's a term that means pinched or plucking of strings,
Speaker 1: and Chaikowski used that really well, that that plucking. It's
Speaker 1: it's kind of in the landscape. It would be using
Speaker 1: plants that rise and fall in height, and that's fun
Speaker 1: within a landscape. And then of course you have forte,
Speaker 1: which would be loud, yeah, strong, playing loudly and in
Speaker 1: a landscape of course, that's dynamic, it's force full and stacey.
Speaker 1: Therein lies are color choices like red. Huh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't even need to do that, but yes,
Speaker 2: I do like red forte.
Speaker 1: Right, and it's going to stay as opposed to let's say,
Speaker 1: using pastel shades.
Speaker 2: Within a lands you know, and the important thing to
Speaker 2: remember about all of this is that it doesn't necessarily
Speaker 2: have to be like this the whole season. You can
Speaker 2: have the forte for just a short, you know, moment
Speaker 2: when that plant whatever it is, is in its full
Speaker 2: flower or the fall color or whatever it is. So
Speaker 2: it's not like it's always beating you over the head.
Speaker 2: It's a moment that you can look forward to based
Speaker 2: on the seasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you need an intermission. Speaking of intermission, let's
Speaker 1: do that now. And coming up next, Stacy's gonna give
Speaker 1: us plants on trial. That's coming up next here on
Speaker 1: the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Proven Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
Speaker 2: the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
Speaker 2: our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
Speaker 2: outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
Speaker 2: Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 3: It's time for us to put a.
Speaker 2: Plant on trial, which is to say, we're going to
Speaker 2: tell you all about one of the three hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty plus proven Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs. And you get
Speaker 2: to decide if it's going to earn a spot in
Speaker 2: your garden. Now, of course, on today's topic of rhythm
Speaker 2: and repetition, really any of the plants in our line
Speaker 2: could work this way, because really it's just a matter
Speaker 2: of you taking a plant that you really like and
Speaker 2: using it typically in multiples of odd numbers is the
Speaker 2: most common way to do this, and repeating that theme
Speaker 2: through the garden in a way that makes visual sense.
Speaker 2: And really you can do that with any plant. But
Speaker 2: one of the plants that I think is particularly suited
Speaker 2: to this type of treatment is a plant that got
Speaker 2: the most feedback I think from the recent garden tour
Speaker 2: that we did on YouTube, and that is Tater taught arborvide.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love Taters, and you know, coming up in
Speaker 1: segment four, I'm going to talk about the invention of Tater,
Speaker 1: not the plant, the stuff we actually.
Speaker 2: I can't wait, so Tater tot arborvity. If you didn't
Speaker 2: see the video of you are interested, you can find
Speaker 2: that on our YouTube channel, and of course there will
Speaker 2: be a link in the show notes at Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: on air dot Com. It's pretty easy to envision this
Speaker 2: one if you're not at all familiar with it. It is
Speaker 2: an evergreen, and it's round, and it's cute like obviously
Speaker 2: the name tater Todd is very cute. And it naturally
Speaker 2: grows just as a tidy little ball of that beautiful
Speaker 2: arbor idy fan like foliage. And you don't have to
Speaker 2: lift a finger, You don't have to prune this thing.
Speaker 2: It just naturally grows that way. It reaches two to
Speaker 2: three feet tall by three to four feet wide, so
Speaker 2: as it grows more mature, it will kind of lose
Speaker 2: some of its roundness and become a little bit more oval,
Speaker 2: but it still has that strong, strong structure that lends
Speaker 2: it really well to using as a theme in variation
Speaker 2: in your garden. And best of all, even though you
Speaker 2: could use any shrub or tree or whatever to do this,
Speaker 2: it's an evergreen, so it provides year round coverage so
Speaker 2: that you are establishing that structure in your landscape and
Speaker 2: it's persisting throughout the year, so you don't lose it. It
Speaker 2: doesn't just come and go based on the seasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you talk about four or four time in music,
Speaker 1: equal beats four beats to a measure, this plant would
Speaker 1: fit that role. It looks to me in the landscape
Speaker 1: like whole notes.
Speaker 3: Oh you could say that.
Speaker 1: And by the way, when we did the garden walk,
Speaker 1: at one point I was petting the tater tots because
Speaker 1: they just look like a cute little puppy. And I
Speaker 1: got a lot of eye rolls on that one.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was cute.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's an irresistible plant, and that's kind
Speaker 2: of you know, it's one of those things, right, And
Speaker 2: when you go to the garden center and you see
Speaker 2: tater tot arborvity and you're like, I love this thing,
Speaker 2: and what do people do? They buy one, they buy two,
Speaker 2: And if they buy two, you know what they're doing
Speaker 2: with them, right, They're putting them on either side of
Speaker 2: their doorway. Yes, they're matching them in a container. And
Speaker 2: all of those are perfectly valid ways to use something
Speaker 2: like tater tot arborvidy. But I think that when you
Speaker 2: aret to you know, imagine this concept of rhythm and repetition,
Speaker 2: and you're buying multiple tater tot arborvitis. So let's just
Speaker 2: say to establish the theme and repetition, you're going to
Speaker 2: buy five sets of three, or you know, maybe you
Speaker 2: can mix that up in different ways, and then you're
Speaker 2: gonna spread that through your landscape in different areas, and
Speaker 2: then you know, that's how you establish that Again, once
Speaker 2: you've established that structure, you can get away with so
Speaker 2: much more beyond that. Structure is a gardener's best friend.
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you this as someone with absolutely zero
Speaker 2: self control when it comes to plants. If I like them,
Speaker 2: I have to establish strong structure. My garden has does
Speaker 2: not have curving lines. My garden has straight lines to
Speaker 2: impose some formality so that I can go and you know,
Speaker 2: be wild with the plants inside of that. So it's
Speaker 2: a simple way to bring you know, again that that
Speaker 2: structure to the landscape. And really I think another good
Speaker 2: way to think about them as punctuation marks in the garden.
Speaker 2: So you said musical notes, and that's also very useful,
Speaker 2: But tater taw arbor vity is almost like a period
Speaker 2: in the garden. And if you could get a taller
Speaker 2: arbor idy and mix it up with something like a
Speaker 2: north pole arborvidy, which functions almost as an exclamation point
Speaker 2: in the garden, and you're mixing and matching these in
Speaker 2: within the garden, you are basically using these plant horticultural elements.
Speaker 2: As a musician does notes.
Speaker 1: I love that thought as punctuation. Who is that famous
Speaker 1: musician that used puncture, Victor Borg?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, Victor Borg.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it was Borsia. Yeah, Boria. Okay, my grandparents
Speaker 3: used to watch him.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh he's hilarious. Watch him on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Incredible, that's the only place. Yeah, but we digress. Yes,
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of.
Speaker 2: Different rounded globe like arbor dy out of there. And
Speaker 2: I know how irresistible these dwarf evergreens are to people.
Speaker 2: They just they just love them. And I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's because it kind of is implying to them
Speaker 2: that they're not going to have to prune, because people
Speaker 2: also do love to prune their stuff and make sure
Speaker 2: that it's all tidy and neat, and so this kind
Speaker 2: of gives you that tidy appearance without you ever having
Speaker 2: to actually do any pruning yourself. So there's a number
Speaker 2: of globe like arbividy out there that you will see
Speaker 2: probably at your garden center. Very old variety called woodward globe,
Speaker 2: which I think was probably the standard for years.
Speaker 1: It was the standard. People liked it, but tended to
Speaker 1: get floppy. That's what I like about Tater times Yes,
Speaker 1: doesn't do that, and.
Speaker 3: It's much smaller.
Speaker 2: So woodward globe got to be every bit of five
Speaker 2: feet tall and wide as it got to be mature,
Speaker 2: which is also a problem because people saw a cute
Speaker 2: little woodward globe at the garden center and thought, oh,
Speaker 2: this is great. I'm going to plant this tidy little thing,
Speaker 2: and then they soon become very large. I'm thinking of
Speaker 2: some in my neighborhood that were actually planted on either
Speaker 2: side of a set of steps, and as they've gotten
Speaker 2: too big, they've been pruned. And this is arborvidy in general,
Speaker 2: or not plants that you want to have to back
Speaker 2: because they're going into your walking space. They don't really
Speaker 2: look so good when you do that. So Tater Tot's
Speaker 2: much smaller again, two to three feet tall by about
Speaker 2: three to four feet wide, nice and dense, and it
Speaker 2: holds up to snow very well. Now, I would say,
Speaker 2: by and large, most rounded arborvits are going to hold
Speaker 2: up pretty well to snow, especially compared to the conical ones,
Speaker 2: which sometimes if they get like a very heavy snowload
Speaker 2: on a branch or so that can kind of bend
Speaker 2: them out of shape, and with the increase in ice
Speaker 2: storms that many of us have experienced over the past
Speaker 2: couple of years, obviously that makes it even harder. So
Speaker 2: it's a good, low maintenance plant that continues to bring
Speaker 2: structure and beauty to the landscape. Now, one of the
Speaker 2: comments that we got on the garden tour was whether
Speaker 2: we were going to have a tater tot arborvity for
Speaker 2: USGA Zone nine. Oh and unfortunately not at this point.
Speaker 2: Trying to breed heat tolerance into a plant genus or
Speaker 2: species that doesn't already have it, I don't even know
Speaker 2: how that would work. I'll talk to the plant breeders
Speaker 2: around here see if they know. I don't even know
Speaker 2: if it's possible. But this tendency for evergreens to take
Speaker 2: on a very tidy and rounded shape or just various
Speaker 2: shapes whatsoever, does exist across species. So for those people
Speaker 2: in USDA Zone nine who can't grow tat Tot, I
Speaker 2: would suggest a Cryptomeria also known as Japanese red cedar.
Speaker 2: There's a variety called Globos and Nana which is going
Speaker 2: to grow very similarly. No tater Tot is hardy down
Speaker 2: to USDA Zone three heat tolerant through about USDA Zone eight,
Speaker 2: and we have discovered that it is much more heat
Speaker 2: tolerant than we initially thought, so we've heard some great
Speaker 2: reports from growers in the South that do very very
Speaker 2: well with it. Obviously, the hotterer climate, the more shade
Speaker 2: the plant is going to want, the more water it's
Speaker 2: going to need. In both cold and hot climates. I
Speaker 2: would recommend a good two to three inch layer of
Speaker 2: shredded bark mulch over the roots because like many conifers,
Speaker 2: the roots tend to be quite shallow, so multiple do
Speaker 2: a lot towards helping keep those roots cool in the
Speaker 2: summer warm in the winter, as well as conserving moisture
Speaker 2: so that you know, continue to have that nice, healthy
Speaker 2: foliage and a nice habit. It is a little bit
Speaker 2: slow growing, which is a good thing, and most evergreens
Speaker 2: tend to be a little bit slow growing. There are
Speaker 2: some faster growing arborvidis, especially that we're developed for hedging.
Speaker 2: This is not going to be one of them. So
Speaker 2: if you are looking to use tater ta arborviidy as
Speaker 2: a main kind of punctuation point throughout your garden, definitely
Speaker 2: look for larger plants if you don't want to wait
Speaker 2: for a couple of years for them to start turning
Speaker 2: into anything. But another way to interpret the rhythm and
Speaker 2: repetition would be to mix various sizes. And I love
Speaker 2: this look. It's not something I have personally used, but
Speaker 2: I love it whenever I see it where someone makes
Speaker 2: a new planting and they have like, you know, a
Speaker 2: three gallon of five in a one gallon, so that
Speaker 2: they're kind of at different stages and so you're still
Speaker 2: establishing that, you know, theme in variation, but without it
Speaker 2: being so you know, matchy matchy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And that I like your approach on the
Speaker 1: punctuation thing. I mean, not everybody's into music composition and
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, or classical music, so looking at
Speaker 1: it as punctuation pretty neat those tater dots can be
Speaker 1: the periods. Yeah, sorry, And you know, like the fine
Speaker 1: line buckthorn right. Yeah, I think it's a great concept.
Speaker 2: So it is pretty pest resistant. But of course, since
Speaker 2: it is an arborvidy, I regret to inform you it
Speaker 2: is not dear resistant. So you will see no tater
Speaker 2: dot arborvid in my garden or rix garden or at
Speaker 2: least outside of his compound. But if you don't have deer,
Speaker 2: this is a great plant to try and start experimenting
Speaker 2: with these concepts of repetition and rhythm theme in variation
Speaker 2: in your garden and just see what it does. You
Speaker 2: will be amazed at the difference it makes. And it's
Speaker 2: so simple. You don't have to know all of the plants,
Speaker 2: you don't have to know all of the secrets. It's
Speaker 2: just an easy way to do.
Speaker 3: What the pros do.
Speaker 2: Sure, really, so we're gonna take a little break. When
Speaker 2: we come back, we're opening up the garden mail legs,
Speaker 2: so please stay tuned at proven winner's color choice, We've
Speaker 2: got a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether
Speaker 2: you're looking for an easy care rose and unforgettable hydrangea,
Speaker 2: or something new and unique, you can be confident that
Speaker 2: the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and
Speaker 2: tested for your success. Look for them at your local
Speaker 2: garden center. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the
Speaker 2: Gardening Simplified Show. Well, we were on that quick break,
Speaker 2: Adriana contributed an interesting idea that I wanted to share
Speaker 2: with everyone, and so she was saying, like, what if
Speaker 2: you took tater tots and planted one kind of in
Speaker 2: the background, one kind of in the mid ground, and
Speaker 2: one kind of in the foreground, and you use the
Speaker 2: artistic concept of foreshortening to kind of make them look
Speaker 2: like they were a snowman are all grouped together. And
Speaker 2: I thought that was so interesting because of course Adriana
Speaker 2: is a photographer and videographer, and this idea of like
Speaker 2: design and how we all interpret repetition and rhythm and
Speaker 2: all of these design concepts really depends on our own perspective,
Speaker 2: which is of course informed by what we do. So
Speaker 2: there are really no wrong answers or no way wrong
Speaker 2: way to interpret these ideas in your garden. It's all
Speaker 2: based on what works for you and how you see things.
Speaker 1: Well said all about interpretation.
Speaker 3: Love that.
Speaker 2: So anyway, we are always happy to answer your garden questions.
Speaker 2: So you can reach us at Gardening Simplified on air
Speaker 2: dot com or leave a comment on a YouTube video
Speaker 2: and we will get back to you because we do
Speaker 2: want to help you. And you can also reach us
Speaker 2: at Provomner's Color Choice dot com for a faster answer
Speaker 2: because of course shows only on once a week, so
Speaker 2: I know sometimes there's some gardening I'm urgencies out there.
Speaker 2: So last week we had someone right or two weeks ago,
Speaker 2: we had someone write in about a weird berry that
Speaker 2: formed on her dogwood, and we talked about the difference
Speaker 2: between dogwoods, and I think that prompted this message.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Beth writes about a plant we talked about, cornis Cusa.
Speaker 1: Love your show. I learned so much. My Kusa dogwood
Speaker 1: tree has some areas appealing bark not due to critters.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me what's going on the tree is
Speaker 1: otherwise healthy and yielding tons of flowers and now berries.
Speaker 2: So Beth did include photos, and I'll tell you it
Speaker 2: is such a pretty planting. You are going to love
Speaker 2: this when you get a chance.
Speaker 3: To see it.
Speaker 2: I could not hardly imagine a better sighting for cornis
Speaker 2: cusa Korean dogwood.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: It's absolutely perfect, And Beth, I am pleased to tell
Speaker 2: you that what you are seeing is nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2: It is a natural tendency of the Korean dogwood to
Speaker 2: have its bark flake off, and it's one of the
Speaker 2: things that actually makes the plant so interesting, especially in
Speaker 2: winter when it has gone dormant, is that the bark
Speaker 2: develops all these different color patches. Now it's called exfoliation.
Speaker 2: That's the horticultural term for it, so a little bit
Speaker 2: different than exfoliating your face. You can't hasten the exfoliation
Speaker 2: of the bark on the corner scusa. It just happens
Speaker 2: naturally as it matures. And that's the key here. So
Speaker 2: that's why you weren't seeing this happen in previous years,
Speaker 2: and now all of a sudden it is and you're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, what's going on. My plant's just like
Speaker 2: losing big chunks of bark. It is totally normal, and
Speaker 2: it just happens when that bark starts to reach a
Speaker 2: certain maturity and then it will start to exfoliate, and
Speaker 2: then it will continue and it will just keep looking
Speaker 2: more and more interesting as time goes on.
Speaker 1: It's developing character.
Speaker 2: It is developing character, So no cause for concern. And
Speaker 2: if you have a moment, please to take a look
Speaker 2: at Beth's Korean dogwood, which is beautifully sighted and I
Speaker 2: think a great use of the plant.
Speaker 1: Stacy Barber is writing to us, I would love to
Speaker 1: grow Lemonee lace elderberry. I love that plant in my landscape.
Speaker 1: Hardy and zones four to seven. I'm in Zone eight
Speaker 1: B on the Olympic Peninsula. Can I grow it?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: The Olympic Peninsula is in Washington State, the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 2: And I love Barbara's question because I think we have
Speaker 2: addressed this on the show before, but it always bears
Speaker 2: repeating because the heart the USDA Heartiness zone system is
Speaker 2: so far from perfect.
Speaker 3: It is really just a.
Speaker 2: Guideline for helping to choose how much cold a plant
Speaker 2: can tolerate to determine whether it can grow in your yard,
Speaker 2: and that is the problem. It does not remotely address
Speaker 2: how much heat a plant can tolerate, so companies like
Speaker 2: US and other plant brands are then forced to kind
Speaker 2: of use the USDA hardiness zone system to address heat tolerance,
Speaker 2: even though it's not a measure of heat tolerance. So
Speaker 2: we say, okay, where USDA Zone seven is. If you
Speaker 2: look at a hardiness zone map, that's about roughly the
Speaker 2: extent of where this plant will do well. But of
Speaker 2: course the issue is that not all USDA Zone eight
Speaker 2: and nine and so forth are created equal. And the
Speaker 2: example that I often give when I'm talking about this
Speaker 2: to people is that Austin Texas and Portland, Oregon are
Speaker 2: both USDA Zone eight, and you need not have visited
Speaker 2: either of those places to know that they are vastly
Speaker 2: different climates and that what you can grow in Austin,
Speaker 2: Texas USDA Zone eight and what you can grow in Portland,
Speaker 2: Oregon USDA Zone eight are very different things. So if
Speaker 2: you live in a cool Zone eight, you are in
Speaker 2: that zone. You know. The reason that that is considered
Speaker 2: zone eight is because your winter temperatures are mild, but
Speaker 2: your summer temperatures are mild as well. So if you're
Speaker 2: in the Pacific Northwest or in a milder climate at
Speaker 2: a higher altitude, different things like that, you do have
Speaker 2: the chance to grow plants like lemony lace, elderberry, especially
Speaker 2: if your nighttime temperatures are cool. That's another thing that
Speaker 2: the hardiness zone system doesn't remote addressed, is like what's
Speaker 2: the nighttime temperature? Like how long is it hot? So
Speaker 2: it is imperfect. It's the best guideline we have about Barbara.
Speaker 2: I'm really glad that you asked this because I think
Speaker 2: that lemony lace should do fabulously for you on the
Speaker 2: Olympic Peninsula in Washington. If you are concerned because it
Speaker 2: does have yellow foliage, and the foliage is, as says
Speaker 2: in the name, quite Lacey. Definitely more shade will help,
Speaker 2: you know, for it to be able to withstand anytime
Speaker 2: you do get some hot, dry weather, which I'm not
Speaker 2: really sure that ever actually happens on the Olympic Peninsula.
Speaker 1: You know, I've visited the area often and so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And your analogy is great, Stacey, because if you think
Speaker 1: about it, think about Austin, Texas, and then think about
Speaker 1: Barbara on the Olympic Peninsula, it's the Pacific Ocean that
Speaker 1: is tempering the climate. And so I would agree with
Speaker 1: you wholeheartedly that I think Barbara could be very successful
Speaker 1: with lemony lace Elderberry.
Speaker 2: So you know, if you have a question about any
Speaker 2: of our plans and you you know we have a
Speaker 2: certain heartiness or heat zone on them and you're wondering,
Speaker 2: please do reach out to us. You know, we're always
Speaker 2: happy to tell you we have some experienced hot climate
Speaker 2: gardeners on staffer that we can talk to. And you know,
Speaker 2: ultimately we're just trying to make people successful. But we
Speaker 2: are stuck with the measurement system that we're stuck with,
Speaker 2: so we do the best we can, but we're always
Speaker 2: happy to elaborate if we can. So thanks for your question, Barbara.
Speaker 1: Okay, here we go. Stephanie has lobbed one right into
Speaker 1: Stacy's wheelhouse. I need help with Macrophilla hydrange of winter care.
Speaker 1: I live in Zone five B. I have some planted
Speaker 1: in the ground and in containers. I heard that zone
Speaker 1: hardiness refers to the plant, but not the buds. Is
Speaker 1: there such a thing. I've also heard that if I
Speaker 1: should spray, will stop on the stems. How should I
Speaker 1: give my high ranges the best possible chance for blooming
Speaker 1: next season? Love, love, love my high ranges, and love
Speaker 1: the show. Please enlighten, Thank you, and thank you Stephanie,
Speaker 1: Stacy take it away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, of course, this is such a big question.
Speaker 2: And Stephanie, what really interests me about the way that
Speaker 2: you asked it is I heard that the zone hardiness
Speaker 2: refers to the plant, but not the buds, and that
Speaker 2: is exactly the issue with most conventional big leaf hydrangees.
Speaker 2: The plant itself, its roots, its stems can easily grow
Speaker 2: in USDA Zone five B, but the flower buds, which
Speaker 2: are indeed on the stems all winter long, don't necessarily
Speaker 2: show the same level of resilience to cold temperatures, and
Speaker 2: that's not common. That is not a common factor among
Speaker 2: most plants. It is. It's pretty unique to hydrange of Macrophylla,
Speaker 2: and that's one of the reasons why people get so
Speaker 2: frustrated and confused about them. So in theory, in USDA
Speaker 2: Zone five B, yes you should be fine. However, of course,
Speaker 2: depending on where you are in USDA Zone five B,
Speaker 2: you might not have very cooperative winters. You might have
Speaker 2: very very cold winters with no snow cover, and that
Speaker 2: really exposes those flower buds to long term potential cold damage.
Speaker 2: Now you will know if winter kill is the problem
Speaker 2: on your big leaf hydrangees if in spring they come
Speaker 2: back from the ground or very very low on the plant,
Speaker 2: and that case winter weather did take them out, and
Speaker 2: you will have to protect the whole plant with some
Speaker 2: sort of cage made out of wire and some leaves,
Speaker 2: and they sell different you know, plant protectors that you
Speaker 2: can experiment with as well or move it potentially to
Speaker 2: a more protected spot. If, however, spring comes your plant
Speaker 2: is leafing out along the entire length of its stem,
Speaker 2: then winter's fine, and the issue is spring because another
Speaker 2: thing that happens, and this is not exclusive to cold
Speaker 2: climate gardeners. This happens for warm climate people as well.
Speaker 2: Those spring frosts. After the plant has leafed out and
Speaker 2: started growing, blam oh, those spring frosts come along and
Speaker 2: it just fries the bud. And that, fortunately is a
Speaker 2: little bit easier to protect against, because all you have
Speaker 2: to do is keep an eye on the way. If
Speaker 2: the plant is showing green and a frost or freeze
Speaker 2: is threatened, just get out there, throw an old sheet, towel, blanket,
Speaker 2: something like that. Do not use plastic. Just throw that
Speaker 2: over the top of the plant and then you can
Speaker 2: remove it the next day when the danger of frost
Speaker 2: has passed, and that will help get it through those
Speaker 2: very cold nights.
Speaker 1: Blamo's a good explanation. And of course you have those
Speaker 1: buds on the stem in winter. In spring, in many cases, Stacey,
Speaker 1: there's been an early warm up, the buds are starting
Speaker 1: to swell and then we get the blam all event and.
Speaker 2: Yep, wow, and that happens even in you know, Atlanta,
Speaker 2: any place that can get a spring frost. So that's
Speaker 2: not exclusive to cold climates. But I will tell you Stephanie. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: will stop or wiltproof will do nothing to avoid this situation.
Speaker 2: So that is used to prevent things like evergreens from
Speaker 2: drying out over winter. Some people use it on decorations
Speaker 2: and that kind of thing, but unfortunately for the hydrangea
Speaker 2: it won't do a lick of good because really the
Speaker 2: issue is temperature. So we have some more research resources
Speaker 2: that we can share and we will link those in
Speaker 2: the show notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. So
Speaker 2: thank you all so much for your questions. We're going
Speaker 2: to take a little break and when we come back,
Speaker 2: we've got branching news, so please stay tuned. The Gardening
Speaker 2: Simplified Show is brought to you by Proven Winners Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have
Speaker 2: been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy
Speaker 2: more beauty and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local
Speaker 2: garden center.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
Speaker 1: branching news and again a reminder coming up later in October,
Speaker 1: we're going to do a show on Halloween. Horror stories,
Speaker 1: horror stories in your garden, in your landscape, in your yard,
Speaker 1: a time when things simply went awrye the wheels fell off.
Speaker 1: We'd like to hear about that to share with others.
Speaker 1: As I've mentioned before, Stacy, I have many, many stories
Speaker 1: where such a thing has happened to me, and they
Speaker 1: stick with you for the rest of your life. I
Speaker 1: know that when my kids were young, I was putting
Speaker 1: in an above ground swimming pool. I was re landscaping
Speaker 1: the area, took out some trees, putting in an above
Speaker 1: ground pool, and I was working on it one Sunday
Speaker 1: and a friend came by and said, listen, this swimming
Speaker 1: pool will not be blessed because you should be in
Speaker 1: church and so this swimming pool is you're going to
Speaker 1: have problems. I'm like, yeah, yeah, whatever. That night, a
Speaker 1: horrific store storm came through and what I had built
Speaker 1: of this pool ended up in the neighbors. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I had to start all over. So yeah, that was
Speaker 1: one of my many, many Halloween horror stories. I'll share
Speaker 1: another one with you. I used to roof houses and
Speaker 1: barns with my dad years ago. I would help him
Speaker 1: and we were on top of a barn out in
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere, and the ladder fell off the barn. Oh. No,
Speaker 1: so there's no way down. So my dad says, well,
Speaker 1: I'll search this side of the roof for a way down.
Speaker 1: You searched the other side, and we'll try and figure
Speaker 1: out a way down. You know, this was before we
Speaker 1: had cell phones. Yes, And suddenly I see my dad
Speaker 1: walking on the ground. I said to my dad, how
Speaker 1: in the world did you get down there? He says, well,
Speaker 1: there's a manure pile on the other side of the barn,
Speaker 1: and I just jumped in.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, I said, well, how far did you sink?
Speaker 1: He said, I sunk ankle deep. So I went over
Speaker 1: to the other side, jumped in the manure pile, and
Speaker 1: I sunk up to my mouth. I'm like, I thought
Speaker 1: you said you only sunk ankle deep. He says, yeah,
Speaker 1: I went in head first. We need your Halloween horrors.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've got some horror stories.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the ghost of plants passed that
Speaker 2: I thought I could grow and die and haunt me
Speaker 2: to this day. The belief that I could grow big
Speaker 2: leaf or not big leief that I could grow smooth
Speaker 2: heyd ranges on my property when I first moved in,
Speaker 2: and then between the deer and the extreme dryness, I
Speaker 2: soon realized was never going to happen. The horror of
Speaker 2: realizing that, yeah, I feel that.
Speaker 1: Best laid plants. I remember a home that I owned
Speaker 1: clay soil and decided to seed the expansive lawn and
Speaker 1: the following day just gully washer storm and all the seed,
Speaker 1: you know, washed away. We've all had those types of experiences.
Speaker 1: I can go on and on with my horror stories,
Speaker 1: but we want to hear yours, so send them to
Speaker 1: us Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Send us an email,
Speaker 1: send us pictures if you have them. But we want
Speaker 1: to hear your horror stories because Stacy, we learned from mistakes,
Speaker 1: and our listeners and and our viewers could maybe help
Speaker 1: someone out there by sharing their horrors.
Speaker 2: Okay, I do need to just say, if your story
Speaker 2: involves a personal injury and you include photos, please send
Speaker 2: a warning.
Speaker 3: I am excited.
Speaker 2: I am extremely squeamish about blood and injuries, so I
Speaker 2: do not want to be surprised by that photo. I
Speaker 2: will forward it to Adrian Enrich. They'll take care of it.
Speaker 2: But I would appreciate a warning before I open any
Speaker 2: injury photos.
Speaker 1: Good it, good point. Well, we talked about Tater Tot,
Speaker 1: and interestingly enough, I had that in the branching news here.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Oregon, the city of Ontario, Oregon, will celebrate
Speaker 1: its legacy this month as the birthplace of one of
Speaker 1: America's greatest culinary creations, the Tater Tot. So in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty three there were two brothers that created the first
Speaker 1: Tater Tots in their Arita factory located on Oregon's border
Speaker 1: with Idaho. So they have a two day event in
Speaker 1: September that celebrates the tot, including novel Tater Tot dishes,
Speaker 1: live music, car show. You know, tater tots are just ubiquitous,
Speaker 1: and to know the birthplate birthplace of the tot is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. Who doesn't like Tater Tots?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm okay on them, but I'm kind of not.
Speaker 2: I kind of can't get over the fact that for
Speaker 2: all of these years of hearing the brand Orida, I
Speaker 2: never realized it was Oregon in Idaho. Oh, Adriana too,
Speaker 2: You should have seen her face.
Speaker 1: Oh boy? Well, okay, so now all joking aside, we've
Speaker 1: talked about this on the show late August and into September.
Speaker 1: We've had some really serious problems with drought in the Midwest,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to share on our web page, Gardeningsimplified
Speaker 1: on air dot Com a link to a map. There
Speaker 1: is a map that basically publishes where drought is taking place.
Speaker 1: It's a drought monitor, and it's color coded and you're
Speaker 1: able to see that. And unfortunately, our friends in Ohio
Speaker 1: have really suffered this late summer and into September. Lack
Speaker 1: of rain in recent months is laying waste to farms
Speaker 1: across Ohio, leaving farmers in the region with smaller crops
Speaker 1: lower yields. So, according to this map, over ninety five
Speaker 1: percent of Ohio is experiencing some sort of drought conditions
Speaker 1: with below average summer precipitation. Over seventy eight percent of
Speaker 1: the state, mostly including most of northwest Ohio, is under
Speaker 1: a moderate drought or worse. Forty two percent of the
Speaker 1: state have felt the impacts of severe drought. Almost a
Speaker 1: quarter of the state of Ohio feeling the effects of
Speaker 1: what they can classify as an exceptional drought, and Ohio
Speaker 1: is afflicted by the most significant extreme drought conditions. On
Speaker 1: this map, they grade the amount of drought the drought stress.
Speaker 1: And so, boy, I'll tell you what I feel bad
Speaker 1: for our Ohio friends. There's other parts of the country too,
Speaker 1: but Ohio has really taking it on the chin. And
Speaker 1: here in Michigan, as I drive along the expressway or
Speaker 1: along roadways, you'll look into the woods along the road
Speaker 1: and you'll see the poison ivy turning bright red that's
Speaker 1: climbing up trees. You see trees starting to turn color.
Speaker 1: Early drought can affect fall color, and we're starting to
Speaker 1: see that here in Michigan. You know, for people who
Speaker 1: love plants, Stacey, you can spot from a mile off
Speaker 1: a plant that's experiencing drought stress.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I was thinking about that the other day.
Speaker 2: How I remember when I was in horticulture school. Teach
Speaker 2: you're saying like, oh, you know, you can really tell
Speaker 2: the trees are drought stressed, and I was like, you can,
Speaker 2: And now, yeah, how you are able to read that?
Speaker 2: And you know, another sure sign that I am seeing
Speaker 2: everywhere around here is premature to foliation. So the leaves
Speaker 2: are just dropping off the plants, not turning any color
Speaker 2: or anything like that. The plant's just like I don't
Speaker 2: have enough water. You guys are out of here and
Speaker 2: just trying to conserve its resources. So yeah, it is rough,
Speaker 2: and hopefully we'll get some rain soon. But you know,
Speaker 2: another issue, and it gets this dry, is that if
Speaker 2: you do get a big storm, the surface tension on
Speaker 2: the soil has developed so strongly that the water can
Speaker 2: just run off, so it doesn't actually wet the soil.
Speaker 2: So another great reason for MULT. You know, we're huge
Speaker 2: opponents of mulch on the show, and MULT will help
Speaker 2: prevent that at least somewhat so.
Speaker 1: And that's true. And there are many great stories also
Speaker 1: of past droughts in past years where they are able
Speaker 1: to see on trees far removed from that drought years later,
Speaker 1: the effect that that drought had on that tree some
Speaker 1: In some cases, if the drought is severe enough, it
Speaker 1: can have not just implications for next year, but long
Speaker 1: term implications for plant. It also brings up the point
Speaker 1: that it's important to not pack away the hoses too soon.
Speaker 3: I wish we could, but we cannot see.
Speaker 1: We can't exactly, and especially plants that are underneath soppets,
Speaker 1: plants that don't necessarily get the natural rainfall in the
Speaker 1: first place, or plants that are competing with tree roots
Speaker 1: stacey heading into winter, you really have to have an
Speaker 1: eye for that, and you want to make sure to
Speaker 1: supplement the water as we have. You don't want a
Speaker 1: plant to go drought stressed into winter.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so true, and I have for years
Speaker 2: when people have asked me about, you know, how much
Speaker 2: should I water and fall? When should I stop? And
Speaker 2: the advice that I always give is, you know, you
Speaker 2: can usually stop, you know, sometime and fall unless the
Speaker 2: weather is unusually hot and dry. This weather is unusually
Speaker 2: hot and dry, So no, unfortunately we cannot step. Especially
Speaker 2: if you have a newer plant, you're going to want
Speaker 2: to make sure that it's still getting good water. You
Speaker 2: don't want to stack stress on top of stress. We
Speaker 2: have no idea what this winter is going to be like,
Speaker 2: but you know, if you live in a cold climate,
Speaker 2: winter is generally a bit stressful on plants. They go dormant.
Speaker 2: And if a plant goes dormant and can't fully make
Speaker 2: use of the resources that it has because it's just
Speaker 2: dropping foliage, green or whatever due to the drought, that
Speaker 2: does set the plant back. And you know, one or
Speaker 2: two years, probably not going to be a huge deal,
Speaker 2: but if we continue to have very difficult weather like this,
Speaker 2: it does, yeah, definitely begin to take a toll on
Speaker 2: the plant. So as you're going around still watering your
Speaker 2: containers or vegetable garden or new plants or whatever, make
Speaker 2: sure you're giving a little love to those established plants too.
Speaker 2: They will definitely appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well said, always a privilege and pleasure to do the
Speaker 1: show with you, stay see Thank you so much, Adriana,
Speaker 1: and thank you to you for watching us listening to us.
Speaker 1: The Gardening Simplified Show is a podcast, radio and YouTube show,
Speaker 1: so look for us and have yourself a great week.